Toothpicks have been popular for many decades, and the means of dispensing them are numerous and creative. The most basic toothpick dispenser, aside from the open box of toothpicks, is one in which a knob is twisted, dispensing a toothpick into a pair of extended arms every time the knob is rotate. This dispenser is simple and effective.
Beyond this simple dispenser, there are many fanciful mechanisms and designs having the ostensible purpose of dispensing toothpicks, but which in fact are in addition conversation pieces, and in some cases esoteric pieces of engineering.
The instant invention falls within the latter category. Rather than simply offering a toothpick up for the user, the dispenser provides much more manipulative stimulation and interest. It concludes a pivotal caricature of a woodpecker which swings down and picks up a toothpick in its beak from a tray which simultaneously moves out offering the toothpick to the woodpecker as the woodpecker swings down. The woodpecker swings down as someone presses down on its head, executing an arc of about two inches, and then returning under spring pressure into its upright position, holding a toothpick wedged in its beak, offered for the user.
Although perhaps the tray could be used by itself, with some lever that could be depressed instead of the woodpecker to actuate it, it would not have nearly the interest and novelty value as the instant invention, utilizing the woodpecker to swing down under hand pressure to mate up precisely with a toothpick extended on the tray, and then raise it up into upright position, offering it to the user.